Reich, Steve. (b. 1936)

"Clapping Music" - Autograph Musical Quotation

A rare AMQS from the American composer, an influential pioneer of minimalist music. On an index card, Reich has penned the second bar of his famous "Clapping Music" and has signed and inscribed at the foot, dating May 10, 1982. On the verso, he has penned: "Many thanks for the kind words / (over)." Autograph material of Reich is very rare. 6 x 4 inches (15.2 x 10.2 cm).

Reich's innovations include using tape loops to create phasing patterns (examples are his early compositions, "It's Gonna Rain" and "Come Out"), and the use of simple, audible processes to explore musical concepts (for instance, "Pendulum Music" and "Four Organs"). These compositions, marked by their use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm and canons, have significantly influenced contemporary music, especially in the US. Reich also tried to create the phasing effect in a piece "that would need no instrument beyond the human body". He found that the idea of phasing was inappropriate for the simple ways he was experimenting to make sound. Instead, he composed Clapping Music (1972), in which the players do not phase in and out with each other, but instead one performer keeps one line of a 12-quaver-long (12-eighth-note-long) phrase and the other performer shifts by one quaver beat every 12 bars, until both performers are back in unison 144 bars later. (16688)

AMQS Classical Music